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Opinions on condensate drains

I was working on a water source heat pump today. The incoming water is from the city and the outgoing water goes down the drain. The condensate drain ties into the water out line. I always thought that you have to run both drain lines separately because you can not vent the drain pan line properly.

The drain pan line just tied into the discharge line and would overflow the the drain pan when the water regulator would come on. I dont understand how this ran for 4 years...... Or did it just short cycle on the water sensing probe ( like it was today )

I'm going back tomorrow to run two lines but another tech told me to just install a check valve between the trap outlet and the branch of the tee. I always thought that you are not supposed to install check valves on gravity drains.

There must be a slight restriction downstream causing some back pressure on the drain line.

The lines need to be run separately in that case. Adding a check valve won't help, since the backpressure will keep the check closed while unit is running and not allow the condensate to drain.

Thats what I thought.
Thanks

Originally Posted by Joehvac25

Can you cut it and run it into a trap on out line so it's just indirect?

I think the way it is now starting over is the easiest way. I'm just gonna cap the branch of the tee (that was the connection point for the pan drain) and run the pan by itself.
thanks for the suggestion